At some occasions in Game of Thrones now and then Tyrion Lannister uses to whistle some melody (at least during the first two seasons, where he still had a bit more reasons to be elated). Is this just some varying random tune he whistles without any further significance or is this a particular melody known to him and others (and to the book readers, if even true to the source material in this regard)?

2 Answers
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The Rains of Castamere is a famous song in Westeros... [It] immortalized the destruction of House Reyne by Tywin Lannister.

The Rains of Castemere went on to become very popular with soldiers of the Westerlands, becoming an "anthem" of sorts for House Lannister. This extends to the point that even Western soldiers sometimes refer to it simply as, "the Lannister song".

Tyrion whistles the tune to the song when he arrives at the Small Council in King's Landing for the first time. He does it again while on his way to visit Shae, when he is surprised to find that Varys is there with her.

Thanks for the answer. Indeed those seem like the incidents I was after. I even thought about "The Rains of Castamere" as a likely possibility (more or less because it's the only song from the TV show with much of a significance to it I know) but wasn't sure about it.
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Napoleon Wilson♦Jun 16 '14 at 8:32

Though, I have to say Tyrion isn't really particularly good at it, given the amount of training he should have had on this one (or maybe it was just Dinklage's incapacity?). ;-)
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Napoleon Wilson♦Jun 16 '14 at 16:19

The rains of castamere is his father song and the tone he hums is from the first girl he married.after they got married and slept together she hummed it. Then tywin found out and made his people sleep with her while tyrion watched and went last.

Sounds interesting, but what do you base this information on? Is this information from the books? In this case you might want to point that out more clearly. If not, then where do you have this idea from?
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Napoleon Wilson♦Sep 5 '14 at 17:12